1580 M. Outred in tr. M. Cope Godly & Learned Expos. Prouerbes Solomon To Sir W. Cecil sig. *ij^v Assuring my selfe, that your care wil be no lesse in the protecting of so good a woorke, then there shal happen profite to the wise reader thereof.

1651 Perfect Passages Intelligence Army No. 43. 300 Surely he will find cause before he getteth thither, to suspect those with whom he hath entered into confederacy, as not worthy the protecting.

1759 Universal Mag. May 276/1 It is not said that this naval force will be confined merely to the protecting of trade in the Baltic.

1837 Times 27 Dec. 4 Every child in Europe must feel that the peace of the world is contingent on the protecting of the Bosphorus from a Muscovite descent.

1895 H. L. Call Coming Revolution 98 Over and above the protecting of property rights, these rights must first be established and determined.

1965 A. S. Byatt Shadow of Sun i. 13 Whether Henry himself was aware of all the protecting and arranging that went on, whether he expected it or took it for granted or never noticed it at all, it was difficult to tell.

2000 B. S. Lawson Rereading Revolution 13 Few in the contemporary nation stressed self-interest in the protecting of American lives, property, and trade.

c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme lxi. 18 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 68 To thy wings protecting shade My self I carry will.

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 194 Saint Denis (the Protecting Saint of the French).

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis v, in tr. Virgil Wks. 358 For what remains, your Godhead I implore; And trust my Son to your protecting Pow'r.

1706 J. Gardiner tr. R. Rapin Of Gardens ii. 69 Grazing Herds..let no growing Infant Wood be near; For Plants yet weak deserve protecting Care.

1726 E. Fenton in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey IV. xix. 149 My lord's protecting hand alone wou'd raise My drooping verdure, and extend my praise.

1785 Daily Universal Reg. 1 Jan. 2/3 The Protecting Duties, so generally called for in Ireland.

1802 Deb. Congr. U.S. 31 Mar. (1851) 230 They have probably caused this protecting duty to impede the progress it was intended to promote.

1818 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 33 521 Say, whether there be any protecting law for the people.

1821 in Bischoff Woollen Manuf. (1842) II. 18 Lord Milton and Mr. Wortley both conceive, that a protecting duty of sixpence per lb. on the wool exported will be conceded to the manufacturers if required.

1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight vii. 96 Protecting glasses are not worn nearly so much as they should be.

1915 W. Cather Song of Lark i. v. 35 His besotted confidence, his sober, radiant face, his gentle, protecting arm, made them uncomfortable.

1962 S. Ennis tr. P. Sayers Old Woman's Refl. x. 72 He had a protecting fence around the field so that no animal could cross.

2002 Artibus et Historiae No. 46. 92/1 A plan to display two sarcophagi of the Magnifici under the protecting images of the Virgin and the family patron saints.

1879 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 1 116 In regard to the position occupied by the protecting group, the author's experiments with the sulpho derivatives of toluene indicate that the protected methyl group occupies the ortho position.

1947 Nature 12 Apr. 500/1 The use of another protecting unit easily removed by hydrolysis in combination with the carbobenzoxy method would considerably extend the use of the latter.

1968 I. L. Finar Org. Chem. (ed. 4) II. xiii. 584 This enamine can react with another amino-acid, and the protecting group is removed by mild bromination.

1993 Jrnl. Org. Chem. 58 4309 After glycosylation, selective acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the Schiff base protecting group was accomplished without cleavage of the glycosidic bond or the carbohydrate acetate protection.

1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 24 49 One of Blackie's hands is protectingly placed across her neck.

1915 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Island vi. 63 Just on the crest..was a little white frame house with groups of pines on either side of it, stretching their arms protectingly over its low roof.

1996 Amer. Lit. 68 518 The body she [sc. Pocahontas] places protectingly over Smith.

1852 H. Melville Pierre vii. viii. 190 Not only did he feel his muscular superiority to her..which made him spontaneously alive to a feeling of elderly protectingness over her.

1910 Mrs. H. Ward Canadian Born ii. 41 But this time she was not conscious of any note of irony in his manner, rather of a kind protectingness.